The Night the World Stopped
by mjf2468
Summary: Slade Wilson had promised Oliver Queen that he would make him despair. Unknown to Oliver, Slade will begin to fulfill that promise the night of his mother's speech. Write-up of episode 2x20 "Seeing Red" and an exploration of events not shown in the episode.


Disclaimer: All recognizable characters owned by CW, etc. No copyright infringement intended.

 **AN: I've had this in my files for a while now. Decided I needed a boost so I polished it and here it is. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for reading!**

After his mother had finished her speech, the Queen family left the civic center in the family limo. Oliver was happy that the bad blood between him and his mother had been settled. However, it remained another story with his stubborn sister.

After a short, uncomfortable silence, Thea glared at her brother. "You knew about Roy."

Oliver turned away from looking out of the car window and looked at his sister in surprise. "What?"

"That's why you had your bodyguard stalking me. Somehow you knew what was going on with him."

Oliver looked at his sister, silently pleading with her to understand. "I'm just trying to protect you."

Thea scoffed. "By not telling me the truth. Just like with Malcolm Merlin." Thea divided a look of scorn between her mother and brother. "The two of you, you think you're protecting me by lying and keeping secrets." Thea turned to look out the car window. "But that's what is actually hurting me."

A look of regret crossed Moira's face. She looked at her two children, and debated whether she should tell them about Malcolm. She suddenly was very, very tired of all the lies. Looking at her daughter, Moira stated, "You are absolutely right. We need to turn another page."

Thea shook her head. "It's not going to be that simple. Or easy."

Moira stated ruefully, "If the truth were easy for me, we wouldn't be in this situation." She sighed. "But to start, there is something about Malcolm that both you and Oliver need to know. He's….."

Moira was cut off by bright lights and a gigantic crash. Their limo had just been T-boned on the deserted road.

Moira raised her head and looked around. Oliver was beside her unmoving and Thea was lying across the other seat, moaning quietly. The car door beside her suddenly was ripped off the car. Her mind, numb from the accident, barely took in this seemingly impossible occurrence. She screamed as she was suddenly grabbed by two unforgiving arms, dragged several feet away from the limo, and thrown to the ground. Her wrists were painfully grabbed behind her back and were then tied together with rough rope. As her assailant returned to the limo, Moira looked in alarm at the familiar face.

It was Slade Wilson. The man accused of kidnapping Thea, the man she had invited into her family home, the man who was now dragging her daughter towards her. He threw Thea onto the ground beside Moira, and then tied her wrists behind her back as well. Moira watched in horror as he returned to the limo once more and returned, dragging her beloved son towards them.

Slade dropped Oliver onto the ground, and roughly rolled him onto his stomach with his foot. Oliver wasn't moving, Moira observed in terror, and his head was bleeding. She took small comfort that he must be alive because Slade was now tying Oliver's wrists together. He then also bound layers of rope around his arms, binding them to his body. Slade then moved to his legs, and bound his ankles again with more rope than Moira would have thought necessary.

As Slade returned to his feet, Moira gathered the courage and the verbal power to ask, "Why? Why are you doing this, Mr. Wilson?"

Slade ignored her question. "Wake your son up, Mrs. Queen. We will then have a nice conversation."

Moira looked up in question. How was she to wake Oliver with her hands bound? Slade glared at Moira and nodded towards Oliver lying on the ground in front of her. Moira got up on her knees and leaned towards Oliver. "Oliver? Oliver, wake up."

Slade yelled in frustration and nudged Moira in the back with his gun. Moira jumped and cried out, "Oliver! Oliver…." in between sobs.

Oliver heard his mother faintly through a jumble of images. Images of his mother combined with a dream Shado saying "I'm dead" and the memory of Ivo holding out the gun towards Sara. He opened his eyes and blinked as his vision cleared. He saw his mother with a gash slowly bleeding on her head, and then….

"Slade!" Oliver watched his deadliest enemy approaching his mother from behind.

"I was dead the last time you were offered this choice," Slade stated in a monotone.

"Slade," Oliver struggled to a sitting position, despite his bonds and his knee hurting painfully.

Slade walked slowly back and forth behind the women. Oliver barely registered his sister crying and asking, "What's happening? Why are we here?" as he watched Slade.

Slade walked over to Oliver and crouched down in front of him. "I often wondered how you looked when he pointed the gun at Shado and took her away from me," referring to that terrible night on the island.

Oliver was beginning to suspect what Slade had in mind for them. "You psychopath. Shado….Shado wasn't yours!"

"No, she was yours" Slade leans into Oliver's space, "until you chose another woman over her, he spat into Oliver's face.

"That's not what happened!" Oliver yelled in desperation.

"It is what happened." Slade rose to his feet. "It is! She told me," pointing towards the woods.

Oliver looked in that direction and saw no one. "What do you mean…she? There's nobody there!"

Moira looked in shock between the two men. Several more puzzle pieces fell into place for her. Looking up at Slade, with her voice wavering, she said, "Slade, you were on the island." A sob escaped her. "With Oliver."

Slade turned abruptly towards Moira and leaned down into her face. "I thought I had known true despair until I met your son." Straightening, he looked at Oliver. "I trusted him to make the right choice."

Oliver attempted to swallow down the panic that was leaping into his throat. "Let me make the right choice now. Kill me. Choose me…please!"

Amidst the cries from his mother and sister protesting the choice, Slade said in a calm voice, "I am killing you Oliver, only more slowly than you would like." He returned to the spot in between the two women and alternately aimed the gun at the back of each of their heads.

"It's time to choose, Oliver. Choose!"

Moira and Thea continued to cry, and repeatedly crying out their protests. Oliver pleaded with Slade, "Please, don't do this, Slade!"

"Choooose!"

Oliver struggled desperately against his bonds, unable to break them but continued to try. "I swear to God, I am going to kill you!"

Moira then arrived at a decision, as her quick mind had figured out what was going on. She wanted to do one last thing for her son and spare him from the agony of making such a choice. She struggled to her feet. Oliver looked at her in alarm. "Mom? What are you doing?"

Moira attempted to pull what dignity she could out of the situation and looked Slade in the eye. "There is only one way this night could end. We both know that, don't we, Mr. Wilson?"

Cries from both her children were then heard. "Mom, please don't do this!" from Oliver, and a confused "Mom, what are you doing?" from Thea.

"My children will live."

Slade turned and approached her with the gun at his side. Suddenly, he extended his arm, aiming the gun at Moira, who instinctively pulled away from Slade and cried out, "Thea I love you. Close your eyes, baby!"

Slade took a step closer to Moira, lowered the gun, and looked her in the eye. "You possess true courage." He turned away from her, putting the gun into his coat pocket. "I'm truly sorry," Slade continued, looking at Oliver, "you did not pass that on to your son." Completing the circle, he turned again to Moira, drawing a sword from within his coat and impaled Moira through the heart.

Thea and Oliver gasped in horror and began to call out. Slade withdrew the sword in disgust, walked away from them a few steps, and looked down at the ground.

"There is still one person who has to die before this can end," Slade said, walking to Thea and cutting the rope binding her wrists with the same sword which killed her mother.

Oliver collapsed onto the ground, on his side, oblivious to the pain in his knee, "No, no…." Tears rolled down his cheeks.

As soon as her bonds were cut, Thea crawled to Moira's side and collapsed onto Moira, crying into her shoulder. "No, Mom, no!"

Time stood still for Oliver. It seemed to pass slowly but then quickly. Images were passing through his mind, and none made any sense. He barely registered Thea's cries over her mother's body. He didn't notice the pain from his damaged knee or the cold of the night air.

Everything was numb. All he felt was….numbness.

In the distance, not noticed by either Queen, sirens from the approaching police cars and ambulances became louder as they reached the area. Before they arrived, a car was heard approaching on the grass, its headlights bobbing as the car went over the uneven ground. It screeched to a halt, and its occupants tumbled out of the car and made their way over to the Queens.

Oliver barely heard Felicity's voice, and felt her slender arms encircle his shoulders. "Oh, Oliver, Oliver! The tracers went off, they just went off only a short time ago. Did all this happen in only fifteen minutes? Are you hurt? Are you bleeding anywhere else? Diggle is checking Thea, and…." Felicity's word explosion stopped abruptly as she remembered to look at Diggle to see what Moira's status was.

Diggle had gone to the women's side as Felicity had gone immediately to Oliver. Diggle knew without checking for a pulse Moira was dead. The gaping wound in her chest was clearly a life-ending one. But he still went through the motions, first by gently pulling Thea away from Moira's side. Thea collapsed backwards to sit on the hard ground, and was blankly looking at the woods. Diggle looked at Felicity and shook his head sadly. Felicity fought off a wave of nausea, as she recognized Moira was dead.

Diggle then turned his attention to Thea. She jumped when Diggle put a hand softly onto her upper arm. "Thea, are you hurt? Can you tell me how you are?"

Thea looked into his comforting coffee-colored eyes and collapsed into his strong arms in a storm of tears. Diggle held the young girl, rubbing her back in small circles.

The police and paramedics had now arrived, and Detective Lance approached Diggle and Thea, with a glance towards Oliver.

"Mr. Diggle, what can you tell me about this?"

Diggle informed Detective Lance of how Felicity had received the alarms on her tablet, which resulted in them rushing here while calling 911.

"Felicity and I didn't touch anything, except for approaching the Queens. We didn't move them. Everything is as it was when we arrived."

Lance looked at Diggle. "Do you have any idea who did this?"

"It was Slade Wilson."

Lance shook his head sadly. It shouldn't have been a surprise, following the events of the past month. Why did Wilson have such a vendetta against the Queens? Lance didn't doubt that the SCPD would find out the answers. But how will the Queen children come back from something like this? He still had some doubts about the Queen son, but Lance had come to terms with his feelings against him over the past year. He was finally able to forgive Oliver, and be able to appreciate the young man he was becoming.

One thing was certain. Slade Wilson needed to be apprehended ASAP before he could cause any further damage.

 **AN: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past. This is one of my favorite episodes, even though it is so very sad, and I wanted to explore that which we didn't get to see on the show.**


End file.
